About Friends Southwestern Burial Ground

Since our founding we have offered a simple burial to all. We are committed to preserving our historic burial ground as a peaceful space of natural beauty. Our goal is restoring and maintaining the health of the natural environment, including the over 150 varieties of trees within our stone walls. We are working toward certification as both a Level I Arboretum and as a Hybrid Green Burial Ground.

As part of our commitment to be a green burial ground, we seek to minimize the environmental impact of burial, including minimizing contamination of the earth with toxic chemicals. If embalming is desired, we strongly encourage the use of green embalming chemicals, which protects the soil and groundwater from contamination and also protects our workers’ health. Green burial may involve use of a shroud, a simple pine box, or a biodegradable casket. We further reduce environmental impact by hand-digging all graves rather than using heavy gas-powered machinery and by avoiding the use of vaults and of concrete slabs in the grave. We are a hybrid burial ground, in that we have burials from the past that were not green burials, but we are now committed to encouraging simple green burial and other environmentally friendly methods of disposition.